German Open 2016, Berlin
- Tuesday July 5th – Friday July 8th 2016
- Schwimm- und Sprunghalle im Europasportpark (SSE), Berlin
- Competition website
- Psych sheet
- Livetiming
- Results
The German Open are the last chance for some already pre-qualified swimmers to get their tickets to the Rio Olympic Games. Here is a short reminder about the German qualifying standard:
The 2016 German National Championships were the first part of a two-step nomination procedure for the Olympic Games. The athletes had to swim defined times at National Championships in prelims and in finals. All swimmers who achieved the times would have been part of the so called “long list” and informed German Head Coach Henning Lambertz in the period of one week after German Nationals in which meet they wanted to confirm the required second performance of the nomination process: at one of the three meets of the Mare Nostrum tour or German Open. They could only choose ONE of these four possibilities. For these meets, other times have been set which are approximately 1,5 % slower than those at German nationals. All swimmers who reach the times and have also finished first or second at the German National Championships will qualify for Rio.
Among those who have chosen the German Open for the second qualification step are: Damian Wierling (50m Freestyle), Florian Vogel (200m Freestyle), Christoph Fildebrandt (200m Freestyle) , Christian Diener (200m Backstroke), Philip Heintz (200m IM) , Leonie Beck (800m Freestyle), Sarah Köhler (400m, 800m Freestyle), Lisa Graf (200m Backstroke, note: she is ill and is not able to start in Berlin).
Sarah Köhler got her ticket to Rio in the 400 m and 800 m freestyle already and also Leonie Beck was under the German Rio nomination standard in the 800 m freestyle.
Today, 2014 European Championships silver medalist Christian Diener won the 200 m backstroke in 1:57,77 and made it with his perfomance in the Olympic Team. So did Philip Heintz in the 200 m IM, he clocked 1:59,79.
Unfortunately Steffen Deibler wasn’t on top of his capacity at the German National Championships in May and wasn’t able to make it on the list of pre-qualified swimmers in an individual event – but today he showed that all his hard work during the last years pays off: 48,27 in the 100 freestyle in heats and 48,33 in the final. So he will attend the Olympics as a relay starter in the 4 x 100 freestyle and perhaps the 4 x 100 medley relay.
Christian vom Lehn was the only German swimmer under 1 minute this year in prelims in 59,87 in the 100 m breaststroke – he finished with a time of 1:00,01 in tonight’s final and perhaps is the first choice for the breaststroke leg in the 4 x 100 m medley relay in Rio.
Swiss swimmer Martina van Berkel set a new Swiss national record in the 200 m butterfly in 2:08,15. Denmark’s Viktor Bromer won the event on the men’s side in 1:56,13.
Tomorrow we will see Christoph Fildebrandt und Florian Vogel who both want to get the second spot in the 200 m freestyle – Paul Biedermann already is qualified. And Germany’s fastest 50 m freestyle swimmer Damian Wierling will try to make it finally in the Olympic roster.
Friday’s schedule:
These are the members of the German Olymic Swim Team (they are not yet officially been appointed and the relay swimmers are not mentioned):
Jan-Philip Glania (100m, 200m Backstroke), Jacob Heidtmann (400m IM), Johannes Hintze (400m IM) Florian Vogel (400m Freestyle), Florian Wellbrock (1500m Freestyle), Dorothea Brandt (50m Freestyle), Franziska Hentke (200m Butterfly), Alexandra Wenk (100m Butterfly, 200m IM), Christian Diener (200m Backstroke), Sarah Köhler (40om, 800m Freestyle), Leonie Beck (800m Freestyle), Philip Heintz (200m IM). Paul Biedermann (200m Freestyle) and Marco Koch (200m Breaststroke) are the exceptions, they are nominated for the Olympics since the German National Championships because they finished first there and have won medals at the 2015 World Championships.
Biedermann won’t swim at the German Open but Marco Koch is listed in the heat sheets in the 200 m breaststroke.
